Make-Up

Cover the blemishes...hide the unsightly discoloration...even out the tone...plump up the lips...pump up the eyelashes...get the eyebrows waxed...firm the arms...lift anything that sags...

And the list goes on and on and on! It makes you wonder what we did before makeup and all these 'concealers' created just to make us BETTER!

One of the 19 y.o. young ladies I work with came up today and said she would be 'happy with herself' if she could just thin out her face. I informed her immediately she was exactly as God had intended her to be at this time in her life. I didn't discourage her from being the best she could be, but reminded her that our perceived idea of perfection is the ideal the world sets, not God.

I remember when I was much younger and my mother insisting I wear makeup to go shopping with her. I remember trying some of the fads that came and went to 'improve my looks'. Even today, in my forties, I have a hard time leaving the house without makeup. I too, have bought into the commercialism of beauty.

It's not just in the makeup...it's also the smile we plaster on our face no matter how we feel. It's covering up our flaws (even in front of our closest friends) for fear we would be judged unworthy by others.

With all that I've been going through spiritually and mentally (and physically) lately, I'm having a hard time justifying the continued attempts to be something other than who I was created to be.

This also gets me wondering about those judged as wearing TOO much makeup or having TOO many enhancements. It appears Satan has us exactly where he wants us. We will never be perfect, but we will always strive for it...perhaps sometimes more than we strive for our Christ-likeness.

Sad, isn't it...